TripAdvisor Reviews Gongda Jianguo Grand Hotel Beijing

Travel Blogs from Beijing

... and wished her and Sun well and then retreated to the comfort of my room.

I sat in the room for a few hours writing until my stomach forced me back out into post apocalyptic Beijing in search of food. My feet had really had it at this point and I stopped by the front desk to ask about a restaurant recommendation and the possibility of a nearby spa for a massage. As I was waiting I overheard another guest asking about massage as well. ...

Today we went to the Beijing zoo. To be honest it was a little disappointing. It was great to see the pandas at play but conditions and living quarters of the animals are the greatest. There is a lot of construction happening for new enclosures so hopefully it will be better once they have been done. The day finished with the dolphin show and aquarium visit... ...

... got into Beijing, and almost immediately, the prim and proper, clean and ultra modern sights I had seen up until that point had given away to the dirty, chaotic, how-can-this-many-people-live-in-one-pl ace-ness of the city Beijing. Cars drove on the right, and followed the instructions of stop lights (most of the time) but that was about all the rules I could see them observing. People on foot and bikes non-nonchalantly darted in and about the moving traffic in a way that made ...

... rest. The next day I had a bit of a lay in. All of the group went to visit the 'Forbidden city' but I had all seen it, so I had a nice lay in and then went to check out the shops in-between our hotel and the 'forbidden city'. I basically walked around here to waste time really. I met the group outside the north gate of the 'forbidden city' and then half of us went Beijing duck. Louis said he would take us to a nice restaurant so we could try the famous Beijing duck. We ...

... marble commissioned by the Dowager Empress Cixi that completely bankrupted the Chinese Navy, and a pagoda that can be seen in the horizon. This pagoda is not part of the Summer Palace itself, but instead is located on just outside the park. It a restricted zone reserved for the Chinese government and is thought of like a Chinese Area 51. There is said to be a secret tunnel from the pagoda into the Summer Palace. I can't wait to see more of ...